The power of paid media extends far beyond the scope of organic reach. As opposed to organic media, such as SEO, content marketing and social media posts (but not sponsored posts), or earned media, such as publicity, reviews and word of mouth, paid media refers to any content placed outside of your own real estate …

In SEO, there are two types of keywords: “head” keywords and “long-tail” keywords. Over 70% of search queries are made up of long-tail keywords while the other 30% consist of head keywords, as shown in the below graph: If you are ignoring long-tail keywords then you are ignoring 70% of the search traffic. Head keywords …

Keyword research is one of the most important digital marketing tasks. Furthermore, it lies at the foundation of any business strategy or campaign you are planning. Keyword research provides useful insight into organic ranking opportunities, persona building, competitive research, product development — you name it! Another reason why I love keyword research is that it’s …

Whether you’re running an organic search or PPC campaign, it all starts with keyword research. Keyword research is usually the first step you undertake when planning how to bring in customers to your website – because the terms they’re searching for will determine the kind of content you will create and the way you will …

Sears, which long ago pioneered an early form of ecommerce through its catalog business, didn’t foresee a shifting landscape that started 25 years ago in Jeff Bezos’ garage in Seattle. While the U.S. retail giant could have carved out a strong presence in ecommerce, it failed to act back in 2005 when Amazon became the …

Google’s Panda and Penguin updates get quite a bit of press. In spite of this, it was really Hummingbird, released nearly five years ago, that turned search on its ear. It marked the beginning of Google’s efforts to parse intent. Through natural language processing, the update enabled Google to begin to understand user intent. This …

There’s a seemingly intuitive – but in practice misguided – logic that continues to lead marketers astray when trying to optimize website content for SEO. Since search engines are designed to accept keywords as input and show search results that are most relevant to those terms, you might reason: “Why not cram those keywords into …

As if we didn’t already have enough to think about in any given SEO campaign, it is now imperative to separate and refine your approaches to mobile and desktop search. While mobile has become hugely significant over the last couple of years, this shouldn’t be to the neglect of desktop. Although SEO for mobile and …

Keyword research is an integral part of any search engine optimization strategy – and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Keyword research takes up a significant chunk of time, and this is the case for many marketers, website owners and content creators. But it is something that has been expanding outward toward small and …

You should always, always, always write content for people instead of writing it for Google. Luckily for you, Google works in a way that heavily favors content that is written for human beings. If that were not the case, then webmasters wouldn’t be able to write things such as “always, always, always” because Google would …